Archive for March 23rd, 2008

2008.03.23

Going to the Happy Beyond

I drove up to Tahoe on Saturday for my friend Bill’s bachelor party. I met up with everyone on the slopes of Heavenly and, naturally, I wiped out on my first run. I think this was the first wipe out I’ve ever had where I thought I might have a serious injury. Somehow I caught a bad edge, propellered through the air and slammed the inside of my right knee on the hard pack. Fortunately it’s just bruised and swollen. I kept snowboarding but kept it easy.

The weird thing about South Lake Tahoe is that it straddles the California and Nevada border. We stayed in a hotel right on the CA side, and walked out the front door and into Harrah’s and Harvey’s. We had a huge steak dinner and drank a lot, and then hit the tables. Or, I should say, some of us hit the tables. I did not. If I gamble and don’t put money down I win most of the time. If I do put money down I always lose.

It was quite a drunk, but overall well behaved. The married men in the group wanted to get a stripper but, counter-intuitively, the single guys were not interested. I think the bulk of us went to bed around 3AM.

Now I am absolutely exhausted but pretty content. If I ever get married (and that “if” looms larger and larger every year) I think I would do something similar to this party… Goto Tahoe and hit the slopes, hang out with friends, repeat to fade. There are definitely worse ways of going to the happy beyond.